Wal-Mart on Friday submitted revised plans to county officials for a proposed Bel Air Supercenter, signifying the company’s intention to build the store despite public protests over the location. The company’s revised plans must be reviewed by the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning for compliance with regulatory requirements before the Supercenter can be built as proposed near the intersection of Plumtree Rd. and MD Route 924. The proposed store site is zoned as a general business district.

Wal-Mart’s move follows an October Development Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting where county officials outlined deficiencies in the company’s original plans, including the site plan, forest conservation plan, landscaping plan, and traffic impact analysis. It is not unusual for a development proposal to undergo revisions prior to receiving final approval.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the company had submitted a revised preliminary plan, site plan, landscape plan and traffic impact analysis. The revised plans have been posted on the county Web site and can be found here.

Pete Gutwald, county director of planning and zoning, said Tuesday that the revised plans had not yet been reviewed, a process that he said would take months at best and could require additional information from the company as the review unfolds. He said it was too soon to identify the major changes from the original plans, although he noted an increase in the store size, which was originally proposed at 186,000 sq.ft. and revised to nearly 190,000 sq.ft.

Wal-Mart first revealed plans to close its Abingdon store and build a new Bel Air Supercenter at a July community input meeting, which was required by the county as part of the development review process. The meeting drew more than 800 angry residents who said that the new store would snarl traffic in an already congested area and otherwise diminish the quality of life for nearby residents.

Since then, opponents have pressured elected officials to stop the project, leading to a request from the Harford County Council to the State Highway Administration to deny access to the store from MD Route 924 because of concerns about public safety. In order to review the council’s request, SHA asked Wal-Mart to submit a revised traffic impact analysis without the planned access to the site at MD 924 and Bright Oaks Drive.

Opponents have also staged roadside rallies near the proposed store site in recent months. On Saturday, protesters stood along Constant Friendship Blvd. near the Abingdon Wal-Mart, urging the company to expand at that location rather than move to Bel Air.

Bill Wertz, Wal-Mart’s community and media relations director for the eastern division, told The Dagger in an October interview that the company appreciated community input, but the Supercenter would not fit at the Abingdon location due to constraints at the site. Countering the protests, he said that the Bel Air Supercenter would bring area consumers a beautiful new store with a greater assortment of merchandise at low prices, including fresh produce and a garden center. Increased tax revenue and 100 new jobs would also come to the county as a result, Wertz said.

Below are the overall “Results, Recommendations, and Conclusions” from the revised traffic impact analysis:

What no one is mentioning is that this land is zoned commercial. If WalMart doesn’t build there some other big box will. It’s a prime location. Where were the protests when the zoning plan was unveiled?

But there is no guarantee that it would be another big box store, though it sure could be. And even if it were, there are very very few retailers that have stores just under 200k sq feet that draw as much daily traffic as a Walmart supercenter, largely because of the grocery component.

So yes, while people should be careful what they wish for, the odds of something with as much disturbance to the community are certainly lower.

That’s not even addressing the fact that if by some miracle a Walmart weren’t built there, you can bet your mortgage that it will probably get re-zoned to keep this from happening again.

No I doubt that. But it has been rezoned, and appealed, while under this one owner, going back several years. If you review the history, it was a contested issue then, and I suspect it would be again. But there’s a process for it, and if it can be shown that the current zoning isn’t correct, it could be rezoned.

That’s not up to me to figure out. That’s up to P&Z, the Council, the Zoning Hearing Examiner, and possibly a judge.

contested is slightly different. When it became B3 the only group that contested it was a small group of people who don’t live near there. The residents seemed to not care. This is why I believe the residents only care now because it is Wal-Mart.

Sorry SEA, you’re making yourself look even more like a moron by trying to imply that CDEV is some kind of Wal-Mart corporate exec who is writing on a local message board. If you look at any previous postings, it is clear that CDEV is a local resident…and is (and has been) part of our community.

*This* Harford County resident is having trouble figuring out how other harford county residents think they have the right to tell Wal-Mart how to run their business. They’ve done nothing illegal and are operating within their rights to open and close their own locations. they are under *no* obligation to even consider expanding the store in abingdon. The amount of opponents to the move is relatively small when you consider the amount of consumer traffic that is projected at the new location — I’m pretty sure they don’t much care about the handful of whiners when looking the larger business plan.

Spoken like somebody that believes the rights of developers trump those of citizens when it comes down to the sort of place they’d like to live. Bully for you…and I assume you haven’t lived her long nor plan to stay if you don’t give two craps the sorry state of overdevelopement we’re in given the ability of the town to provide services and efficient ingress/egress in and about town.

Nope…lived here all my life….and plan on staying as well….I just feel like the citizens had a chance to assert their rights during the zoning process. I do not believe that we are in a sorry state of overdevelopment — I just dislike the entitled NIMBY attitude of so many people in this county.

Nothing wrong with NIMBY…isn’t that the entire point of the thing? Of course people care more about what’s built right next door than they do the next town over. I’d suggest folks that got thier shorts bunched up over what’s built the next town over might be accused of interfering where they have no business and in some way that might be true. NIMBY in fact suggests you care about your neighborhood, and by extrapolation the town you live in. NIMBY is the highest form of compliment when it comes down to being involved and active in concern for town planning. Wish we had more of it…

Jim,
Can you honestly say that if there was a Supercenter Walmart being put LITERALLY right next door to your home that you have owned for years you wouldn’t mind at all? The home that you have invested in for years? If in one fail swoop your property value would dramatically just dissapear? That you might not even be able to pay someone to take your home because no one will want to live next to a Walmart?
You immediately jump and call people that oppose this new Walmart entitled?
Have you ever been in a Walmart? I do shop at Walmart and I can tell you if you are looking for people who feel ENTITLED. I for the most part do not allow those people effect my attitude towards my day. It is extremely disheartening watching some of them treat the cashiers like they are servants or garbage. They dont treat people the SAME as they would want to be treated. Walmart can be great, but the people that wants something for nothing and that think the world owes them will be going to Walmart and I can’t say that I would want to be RIGHT NEXT DOOR to place that these types of people that will be driving past my house where my children are.
There are 3 walmarts in our county already. Can you try to put yourself in another persons shoes? Let’s try care about one another please.

A Rose by any other name… people from Bentonville give themselves screen names like “HarCoResident” and “Abingdon Resident” to make it look like they are us. Then they harass us for caring about the future of our community.
Expand Abingdon Walmart.

It’s also still not too late for Walmart to pull out of the plan to build at Plumtree and expand Abingdon.
It would be great PR for Walmart. People all over the world would see that Walmart can work with a community to create a store that works for everyone.

Well you are the one with the projected and actual sales figures so why not share them all with us? This is just the sort of information the protesters need to support their cause.
If you don’t publish them I will assume, like every other argument you have, you made it up out of thin air AKA a lie.

Bob you’ve been shown on multiple occasions to position your arguments using long ago refuted facts and figures so let’s not get into an argument in which you apparently would like to accuse me of lying. The last misstatement you made was so blatant and beyond defense you ran off and never posted another of your personal attacks as it pertained to that subject. Perhap you might share with a list of the various things I’ve lied about? Remember the time you warned me that I ought to be sued for defamation…keep that in mind when you make your list dear.

I was here when the Festival was a field. – There used to be an Ethan Allen Furniture store, Emmorton Church and a few houses in the area. That was it. Fast Foward 40 years – lots of houses, stores, schools. Somehow life goes on – not without accidents and even fatalities to be sure over the years – but that is part of life and we continue.

Cabelas is already building in Christiana, Delaware. Good luck convincing them to put a store within an hour of another store, especially when the second store would have a 6% sales tax vs zero at the first location. Cabelas usually builds in less-populated areas to attract businesses and develop almost a destination shopping experience, Christiana is one of the first to go in next to an already-established shopping mall, but the lack of a sales tax and its location near I95 make it perfect for their market. Abingdon and Southern Bel Air is already crowded, convincing them to put a store there even before they decided on Christiana was a long shot, now its just not going to happen.

Bass Pro might consider the Abingdon Walmart if the location become available, but given the publicized traffic issues with the location’s current roads, I wouldn’t be surprised if they pass as well. You also have to be aware that there is one Bass Pro in Hanover and another in Harrisburg, with a future store coming to Atlantic City. Market saturation for high-end hunting and outdoor gear is quickly approaching, even before you consider the internet’s impact.

We already have a Walmart in Fallston, Aberdeen, Bowleys Quarters, Dundalk, Rosedale, Parkville, Towson, Hunt Valley, and Northeast. We also have Target at Aberdeen, Abingdon, Bel Air, Cockeysville, White Marsh, Middle River & Pikesville. There is no less than 6 of these stores within 30 minutes of anyone in Bel Air.

How much Chinese crap do they think people in this area will buy. If people want to shop at these stores they have easy access to many of them.

You know, people say this all the time, and it just doesn’t seem true to me. I think there were obviously major problems at CF in the past, and sometimes there still are major problems when there is an accident. I was stuck in there once not too long ago for about 30 mins because of an accident, which is ridiculous, but the person most to blame for that is the developer of the property who hasn’t seen fit to reconfigure it.

But I live very near the shopping center, and other than the fact that it is difficult to make left turns within the shopping center (a problem all over central Harford County and another thing that could be addressed if the developer chose to fix it) I have had no problems navigating in, out, and round CF and the stores located there in a long time.

So I honestly don’t understand why people are still complaining about it. If you don’t like a crowd, shop when there aren’t crowds.

The protesters went to the existing store, I’m guessing trying to get Wal Mart to change it’s mind from building a 190,000 square foot store to remodel the existing one into a much smaller 140,000 square foot store on a lot that will not support it.

My how Westboro Baptist Church of them. These are the people that leave the rest of the state thinking Harford county residents are nothing more than a bunch of hill billies.

Money Tree
and you make it clear that you are a person who whines when the law is followed and you don’t get your way. WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST PROPERTY RIGHTS? The owner of that property has the right to sell that property to a buyer if done in a legal manner and under the process of law. No one has to care what you or other crybabies want. How would you like someone to tell you who you can sell your quarter acre lot to?

It’s not about who I sell to; it’s about what can be built. Let’s not pretend that anybody can do anything they want with their real estate – improved or not improved. I can’t cherry pick who buys my real estate when it’s up for sale but I sure can’t tear down a barn and build townhomes without proper permits and such. You and other other group of myopic, morons that try to suggest this is about some new, never before practiced restriction to commercial development. A liquor store can’t be built next to a church, a mental-health facility next to a school, nor a strip club adjacent to the high school. Each of these things would be met with resistance and for good reason. We have plenty of Walmart already; that fact many if not most feel like we don’t need another one, especially in that ill-advised location are well within thier rights to object.

The problem with your arguement is that when you say ” I sure can’t tear down a barn and build townhomes without proper permits and such.” You forget that what Wal-mart is doing is attempting to get the permits. The land is zoned for that and as long as Wal-Mart does what is required than they should be issued. We do not selectively issue them to buisnesses we like and those that we don’t. The Anti Wal-Mart crowd IMHO can be divided into a few groups. The Nothing should ever be built group, the I hate Wal-marts customers group, and the people who simply question the ability of that lot to work. The last group is the only group who is legite and they generally realize if Wal-Mart follows the law than they should get Permits the other two however will not be satisfied.

The caveat and I think what concerns so many is the obvious difference and much more profound impact on the neighborhood of this tremendous big box store vs. the type of commercial development as it already exists in that area. That proposed Walmart you must admit is quite a departure from the current “tone” of the area. Don’t you think people directly impacted; those that live in that area have some right to be concerned?

“tone” is another word for we don’t like the customers. Honestly when you live next to a B-3 lot….you get to be concerned but you don’t get alot of say. The time to have been concerned and have a say was when it was rezoned to B-3. You don’t get to pick who the land owner sells to. It is akin to getting to void your neighbors sale of the their house because you don’t like the price or who they sold to or the intentions of the buyer.

So CDEV suppose there is some legitimacy to those that think that Walmart in that lot is like squeezing a lumberjacks foot in a ballet slipper…then what? If we agree that there’s a legitimate issue there neither side should or can say with an absolute definition what should or shouldn’t happen. For the sake of argument let’s assume we agree that Walmart at that location might be a poor fit – do we then make any accomodation possible to assist Walmart at it’s current location? Isn’t that exactly what’s being done – sure seems to me the council and the county administrator have/has offered his office to Walmart if they will reconsider thier plans for the Plumtree location. To date Walmart has met these suggestions with fingers in their ears.

a poor fit is a valid reason to reject it if Wal-mart is unable to or unwilling to mitigate the fit. It seems to date they are willing and able to do those things. Poor fit does not mean keeping with the “tone” or what ever anti competition enviornment people want to set up for other buisnesses.

While some truly only worry about fit there are others who are issuing dictates about when and what Wal-Mart can or should sell. This no belair walmart group is one.

Zoning restrictions…the very things at issue here very often control what sort of business is allowed in what locations. It is not the least bit unusual although it varies from county to county for liquor sales to be precluded within so many ft. of a church. This isn’t rocket science here – kinda common knowledge.

People really need to wake up and look at the zoning classifications in Harford County, because that is where half this problem originated, and will originate from again. They are far too wide open. There should be more individual classifications that are more specific rather than giant lumps of varying uses mashed into a few classifications.

And since I anticipate someone will say it, no I’m not even asking for overly restrictive zoning laws, I’m just suggesting they need to be more clearly delineated. Currently we have about 9 categories for every imaginable type of residential and business use in existence.

If people really want to make a lasting change in their community they should start with changing that, because the current system doesn’t favor us, it favors developers.

Couldn’t agree more and have been saying this since day one. The entire reason we’re having this problem is poorly and ill-conceived commercial zoning identifications. Walmart is quite different from Mandy’s Strip Club, Sarahs Equines and More Veterinary Medicine or Lotus Ceramics…but yet all are commercial ventures. All serve a purpose in the correct location and all have a clientele that needs them and yet each would be a poor fit in an area where the others would be welcomed. This one ought to be an easy fix and needs to be addressed for the sake of good planning and the proper and best use of space as it becomes a more and more limited resource.

But your premise for them not to build, as you have previously stated is and I quote…

“We have plenty of Walmart already; that fact many if not most feel like we don’t need another one”

Can never and will never be made into a law in this great country . This country is a republic and as much as you have stated on this issue how you don’t like that ….. Why don’t you move? I know the USSR is gone but surely you could find a dictatorship that fits your needs.

Seriously…. I’m not here trying to argue with you ,I’m just trying to enlighten you on the difference between your emotions, that you want everyone to change their ways to accommodate and the actual laws that govern this great country.

The problem stems from the zoning. Not from Walmart. Walmart is doing what they have every right to do under the law. I don’t agree or disagree with a Walmart at the specific location but I very much disagree with people thinking that they can change zoning law buy putting a sign on a stick and complaining. If we are a nation of laws then we follow the law as it is written and do our best to change it if we can convince enough of our fellow citizens to agree with us. The message to the anti-Walmart crowd is very clear – your preference has a right to be heard but does not trump the existing laws and ordinances. The message to Walmart is equally clear. Follow all of the rules and regulations and you will get the store. The message to all of us is that in America we have a right to be heard but not a right to impose our preferences unless they are within the law.

I like how people can devote hours to stop something. There’s plenty of stuff we could rally about that actually means something! Think there is over 27 million human slaves worldwide. That’s the most in the history of the world but we choose to spend our putting on a “show” for walmart. No wonder they added an extra 6,000sq feet! Just saying.

I am just having a hard time thinking of the massive traffic problems that will result. When I drop off/pick up my kids from Patterson Mill I try to avoid 924 like the flu. I don’t really see how its going to get any easier. Do you?

You illustrate why Wal-Mart will have little problem. To meet the standard for mitigation they only have to make the traffic impact negligible. They don’t have to make it better. Making it Better is the counties and states job. If the can make it slightly better they will have gone above and beyond what it is required.

Normally when projects of this size are completed, traffic flow tends to improve in the short term. For example, the traffic light at Emmorton/Woodsdale functions much better than it did before the Boulevard made changes to it– however, the Boulevard isn’t complete, and growth all around will continue, and the flow of traffic will steadily degrade. Now I don’t hold Boulevard responsible for that, nor do I hold Walmart responsible for when it happens around their project (because you correctly point out it’s not their job or responsibility to make all the improvements for everything), but I do hold our flawed development process responsible for not taking a broad enough view of entire area to have smart, sensible, growth in the envelope.

With Walmart, it is particularly, acutely, frustrating because of the improvements that were JUST completed at their current location at significant cost to all tax payers, and now they are going to move their business to another location even less suited to their impact, and all taxpayers will one day have to pay for it all over again— or worse– all of the right of way will be gone and no further improvements will even be possible– or even worse– the government will have no choice but to attempt eminent domain to get more right of way, as it recently had to do in Aberdeen.

I don’t believe it’s presumptuous to expect our government to do everything within its power to prevent all that, nor to ask Walmart to consider the consequences of their actions for the community and at least make an honest attempt to work on other solutions.

Money Tree, you finally have given a reasonable response. In a free capitalistic society, which I believe most Americans still want and value, the correct response is for you to boycott Walmart. Good luck with that, and if it doesn’t work, get over it. Whether you like it or not, this county will continue to grow- that is what happens when the population increases. A sure way to reduce that growth would be for you to move to Utopia.

Just a quick note to all: the other night I saw a documentary on Walmart. It was not good at all – I became very concerned as to where I had been spending my hard earned money and decided I did not want to spend it at Walmart ever again after watching this show, seriously. I had no idea that treatment of their employees was to such bad degree, poor wages and inefficient health care and were more or less bullied to work over and above their regular schedule. The Walmart warehouses in China were pathetic – they were sweat shops and the people were making such pathetic wages n basically required to rent rooms from a Walmart boarding house and the tenants were required to have the rent taken out of their checks before they got them and also required to pay for their utilities. If the person did not want live in the boarding house – Walmart would still the funds for the boarding out of their checks and that’s just the way Walmart had it set up! I could go on and on about this – but I urge each and everyone to try to see this Walmart documentary it was made in 2005, so perhaps they have cleaned some of their violations up – that I do not know. I feel this company started with these deceitful practices with their employees early on and some how it hasn’t changed that much for the betterment of these poor people.
.You are getting low prices at Walmart because they are abusing the poor people in China sweat houses. Because of their labor practices many cities throughout the United States have banned together to prevent Walmart from building in their towns and many have one!!! yeah!! Please, please, somehow try and find out how you can view this documentary – it is quite an eye opener of big business practices!!! God Bless us all!

It is clearly a little biased, IMO, but in general very informative, and I think we can probably take it under general advisement on the true costs of low prices in the market, regardless of who the company is (Walmart, Target, etc).

Late last year Target actually had lower average prices than Walmart, so we have to tread and spend wisely as consumers no matter where we go.

Definitely encourage everyone to check it out. If you feel dirty afterwards, watch a Reagan documentary to clean off if that makes you feel better, but at least you’ll have diversified your interests.